Mary in the Gospel of John: Part VI:
And the Mother of Jesus was There
Fr. J. Patrick Gaffney, SMM
Saint John’s account of the Marriage Feast at Cana is extremely rich in symbolism. Far more than describing a wedding party, John 2:1-12 reveals the glory of Jesus the Redeemed. It is at this deeper level—the disclosure of the mystery of salvation—that we have been studying the Fourth Gospel. As mentioned in previous installments, only when this chapter of John is twinned with chapter 19:25-27 (Mary at the foot of The Cross ) can we truly understand the profound meaning of the Cana wedding least
T he “glory,” the “mystery” that the marriage feast reveals is primarily that of Jesus the Savior, as we saw in the previous installment. There is also the secondary sacramental topic disclosed in the water/wine (Blood) which will flow from the side of Christ (to be seen in more detail in future [articles]). And there is undoubtedly another subordinate theme: the disclosure of the role of Mary in salvation history. It is this subject that we will begin to study in this issue of The Queen.
Mary at the Wedding Feast
We can resume the role of Our Lady in salvation history as disclosed in the Cana wedding feast under the following headings:
1. The presence of Mary at the Wedding Feast
Previous issues have shown that the deeper meaning of the marriage as described in John’s first Cana miracle, is the redemptive wedding of the triumphant sacrificed Lamb, Jesus the Lord, with the people of God. Jesus is the bridegroom, the Bride is the Church.
With emphasis, John insists on the presence of Mary at this banquet. The entire narrative begins with an announcement of Mary as guest: “On the third day there was a marriage at Cana in Galilee and the mother of Jesus was there.” Four additional times is Mary referred to, although never by name: she is the “mother of Jesus,” the “woman,” “his mother.” This rather predominant place given to Our Lady at this anticipated wedding feast of the Lamb suggests that there is something special about her role in salvation history. We can get so used to reading this chapter of John that it becomes difficult for us to be surprised – as we should be – at this stress on Mary’s presence. It surely appears that John has something important to say about this woman.
Painting: Feast at Cana: Bartolome Esteban Murillo (c: 1675)
Mary in the Gospel of John
The Queen presents a series of articles of Mary in the Gospel of John.
And there is undoubtedly another subordinate theme: the disclosure of the role of Mary in salvation history. It is this subject that we will begin to study in this issue of The Queen.
2. Mary as the Bride
Jesus, the Groom in this deeper understanding of the wedding feast, transforms the weakness of water into the joyful strength of wine. This is the symbol of what will be accomplished on Calvary: Jesus will pour out the wine of His Divine Blood and through this total offering, will be wedded victoriously to the human race. Who represents all the guests in their request for this redemptive wine? “. . . the mother of Jesus said to him, ’They have no wine.’ ” In the name of all who are called to the wedding banquet, Mary speaks. Her statement of fact is a plea for salvific healing from the Redeemer Bridegroom. Like Luke in the annunciation narrative, so too John here depicts Mary as the spokesperson for the guests, the human race. She is the summary or corporate personality, then, of all those called to share in the wedding feast. And those invited, the people of God and with them all creation, are the Bride in this deeper understanding of John. Mary here is the voice of the Church, the Bride.
3. Mary, the Woman/Mother
John’s Gospel, even more than the synoptics, presumes a thorough knowledge of the Old Testament and in a special way, an understanding of the Genesis account of the Creation and the Fall. The application to Mary of the term “Woman” almost spontaneously recalls the figure of Eve, the “woman” of Genesis, the mother of all the living, and with Adam, the source of the Fall. That John intends this comparison can be challenged since the term “woman” is applied to the woman at the well (4:21), the woman caught in adultery (8:10), Mary Magdalene (20:13). However, although the term appears to be a polite form of address, it is extremely odd that Jesus would use the expression “woman” for his mother. Such usage is surely not the custom of the Jewish people at the time of Jesus. It is, therefore, legitimate to seek the symbolism of the term “woman” as applied to Jesus’ mother Mary (even when she is addressed by Jesus from The Cross, cf. 19:26) since it is so unusual. Thumbing through the Old Testament, Eve, the woman/mother, stands out as the principal reference point.
The allusion to Eve is bolstered by another writing of the Johannine school, Revelation. In Rev 12:1-4 we read of the “great sign” which appears in the heavens, a “woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of twelve stars, she was with child and she cried out in her pangs of birth, in anguish for delivery. And another portent appeared in heaven, behold, a great red dragon . . . (who) stood before the woman . . . that he might devour her child when she brought it forth. ” This “portent” is the Christian interpretation of Genesis 3:15: “I will put enmity between you (the serpent/devil) and the woman (Eve) and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.” In Rev 12, the woman, who is with child, is at enmity with the dragon “that ancient serpent” (v. 9), an explicit throwback to the battle foretold in Genesis 3:15. The woman in Genesis is Eve, the mother of all the living; however, in a fuller sense, it is the Mother of the Messiah, Mary. In Revelation, the woman is an individual who symbolizes the people of God, both of the Old – who brings forth the Messiah – and of the New – the Church beset with persecution. And it is Mary, the new Eve, who symbolizes the people of God as she at Cana in the name of all, requests the new wine of salvation. Revelation 12 is a double symbol: the people of God, and the mother of the Messiah, Mary, who is the summary of the Church.
Joined with John’s account of Mary at the foot of The Cross, the linkage of Genesis 3:15, John’s marriage feast at Cana and Rev 12, reveals Mary as the woman who is the Mother of the redeemed. And as we will see later in more detail, Jesus himself speaks of this motherhood when he cries from The Cross, “Woman, behold your son. Then he said to the disciple, behold your mother” (Jn 19:26-27). Mary, at Cana, is in a fuller sense, the woman of Genesis at enmity with the devil; she is in an anticipatory way, that woman who cooperates in the destruction of the power of the devil by her request for the new wine of salvation. She is, at Calvary, the woman at the new Tree of Life – who unlike the first woman, Eve – stands faithful and obedient to God. As Eve fell through disobedience, so Mary brings forth new life through obedience.
The marriage feast of Cana is then a prefigurement of Calvary. In symbol, Mary accomplishes at the wedding feast what she will do at the redemptive Cross: in the name of all creation request and open herself in total obedience to the redemption wrought by her Divine Son. The marriage feast of Cana is also a prefigurement of that triumphant marriage feast of the Lamb with his Bride, the Church, of which Mary is the great sign.
In the light of the above, how do we understand the apparent rebuff given to Mary by Jesus at Cana when he says to her, “O Woman, what have you to do with me?” And what are some of the practical conclusions to be drawn from this exegesis of Mary’s role at Cana? We will tackle those issues in the next installment.
(To be Continued)
